Short Stories. Photos and pictures. Poems even.

oyster festival

The great manor house of Sagamore Hill has just recently had it’s reopening after three years of renovations. We had a change to visit there about two weeks ago and it was magnificent! It is the Summer White house of President Theodore Roosevelt. I believe that helped to refresh the town of Oyster Bay as well. So all is good.

32nd annual Oyster Bay Festival in our neighborhood here on Long Island is a yearly fall happening. Yesterday was no different and yet it was. The weather was cool and slightly windy. We found parking one-two-three and walked down the Main Street towards the harbor. There were new stores in town! I liked them and we have to come back to check them out. The entire street scene has been upgraded with new signs and it did not looked like forgotten town and left living on it’s old glory. There was a new baking school for children, a party place I assume, it’s entire wall opened to the street. Fire department was selling their T-shirts and music played out loud. There was an interior design shop closed yesterday, with a beautiful window display and I believe it has been there for a couple of years. There was an antiques shop with pretty displays. An another one, Under the Tin Ceiling with open doors and open welcome was new to me. I stayed to talk to the owner for awhile. There were plenty of gift items, whimsical items like re-purposed license plates as key rings. They had some great canvases of old rusty trucks for sale and they are great sellers, she tells. The photographer of those pictures will be talking about her photos in November sometime. The owner promised to email me and hopefully I feel like attending. The store’s interior was soft country with some French Blue with contemporary twist and beautiful small furniture but mainly smart decorations. Elegant and charming!

What I missed at the fair were all the interesting antique/junk sellers on the Main Street. It is so fun to rummage through all that stuff! Too bad they were not there! The rides were there on the way to main event. And the kids were of cause running around and screaming. This year again 150 000 visitors were expected over the week end. The main event is oyster shucking! 40-50000 raw oysters are consumed this week end! The contest winning eaters eat about 30 oysters in four minutes. Not my thing. I ate a bratwurst with mustard, hold the sauerkraut, and no drink. Eight dollars! The variety of food was offered, naturally more than 60 plus choices! Mussels and shrimp, lobster rolls, fish and chips. Empanadas, Mexican and South American delicacies galore. Lobsters! Sweet stuff like funnel cakes, waffles and ice cream.

There were tents filed up with arts and crafts sellers. Yes I bought a ceramic snowman lantern, a polish babka with cheese and pineapple yummy. I was really looking for Christmas cards a local photographer Ralph Pugliese who has all the business on Long Island covered had great prices. Folded cards 8 were for $5. Inexpensive. But I could not decide on the pictures which were of local sights in winter. Nor did I like was the curley- cue- text on them. OK picky, picky, but I still like to send them out. My list of about 100 has been down sized in the past years but I believe there will be still plenty of friends to write to. So maybe I do them myself again.

The big hit this year was world’s largest rubber ducky! She is more than six stories high and weighs 11 tons. She however was so thirsty that he barely could lift his head from the ocean waves. Well it was a day well spend on a fall day after all.